Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Get ready, another season of 'nest-flix' is beginning. Melbourne's peregrine falcon camera is back, meaning people can watch a live feed of a peregrine falcon nest, high up in the city's CBD.

There are seats up for grabs at one of the world's most important tables, and Australia is putting up its hand to join. At the United Nations later this month, Anthony Albanese will be spearheading an attempt to join the Security Council for a two-year term that would begin in 2029. The last time Australia was on the council was between 2013 and 2014.

When politicians make announcements wearing hi-vis and hard hats they are making a terrible miscalculation about who Australian voters really are, says one of Australia's great journalists George Megalogenis. Three major shocks have redefined the Australian electorate, and yet for decades politics has failed to keep up, with both major parties operating on outdated assumptions.

At the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Palau this week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced $600 million to combat drug trafficking. The deal promises increased aerial surveillance across the Pacific, improved maritime capability, and additional training and support for police. As crime and HIV spirals out of control in countries like Fiji, will the investment be enough to squash the rapidly escalating illicit trade?

Germany has blamed the Kremlin for attempting a drone attack at Leipzig airport last month targeting a Ukrainian plane. The heads of NATO and the European Commission have warned Russia is growing increasingly reckless and vowed to respond to a dangerous "new normal."

What's the first sweet thing you remember eating? Comedian Jennifer Wong is a keen observer of Australia's changing tastes, and she's found that starting a conversation with food quickly leads it to surprising and profound places. She joins Nick to share her best last things.

The rise of One Nation has been one of the biggest political stories in Australia this year. But who exactly are the people behind the surging polling numbers? This week, a survey of 1,014 One Nation supporters shed some light on the kind of people getting on board with the party. One finding was 91 per cent believed the country is heading in the wrong direction. For all voters, this is 62 per cent. The survey was run by pollster John Utting and Labor strategist Bruce Hawker.

There was sad news this week from Nashville, Tennessee, the home of the undisputed Queen of Country, Dolly Parton. Regular listeners will know that we were big Dolly fans, in fact we tried to get her to come on the show on July 4th, to mark America’s 250th birthday. We did that partly because in the disunited states of America, she was a unifying figure. We’ve been looking back on an extraordinary American life, in her words, and in her songs.

An Australian start-up company has been developing a drag-reducing adhesive film for use on aircraft which helps reduce fuel and lower emissions. And it was all inspired by a shark.

The US has launched a campaign to cripple Iran's economy by cutting off its remaining economic lifelines. The Treasury sanctioned more than 60 entities, including Chinese firms, but fell short of placing more forceful sanctions directly on China.

Washington and Ottawa are locked in a tariff tit-for-tat after trade talks collapsed earlier this week. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are potentially at stake on both sides of the border.

Nepal and Tibet are still reeling from the catastrophic flash floods that hit the Himalaya region earlier this week. The images coming from the disaster have been shocking: Bridges swept away, highways destroyed, entire villages engulfed by torrents of mud and water. As more details of the disaster continue to emerge, we speak with a journalist on the ground there.

In 2022, parts of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system, the multibillion-dollar network carrying Russian gas into Europe, were blown up. So who exactly was behind what has been described as "the greatest act of sabotage in modern history?"

When a badly stuffed "fox head" was advertised by a UK auction house, James Cranfield quickly worked out that it was a "priceless" head of a thylacine. The taxidermist and collector won the two-way bidding war for "the find of a lifetime." How important is this specimen of the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger?

This week, the federal government's gambling reforms passed parliament, after a bipartisan deal was struck with the Coalition. The package includes restrictions on gambling ads, but in the eyes of some politicians and many campaigners, it doesn't go nearly far enough. So why is it so hard to pass major gambling reform in this country?

It was Britain's deadliest terror attack: In December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded in the air above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 on the ground. Almost four decades on, there is fresh evidence and a new trial. Next week, a Libyan man suspected of making and detonating the bomb will face court in Washington DC.

This week, the headlines were dominated by the Trump administration's decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, a longtime US ally and a linchpin of America's national security strategy in Asia. The US aircraft carrier USS George Washington has been redeployed to the Middle East, temporarily leaving the Asia-Pacific region without an American carrier strike fleet. So is the US pivoting away from Asia?

Growing up in a lower middle class family on the south side of Chicago fundamentally shaped the thinking of Glenn Loury, but his politics cut against the grain of many black Americans. "Here I was in the era of Reagan telling black people to pull their socks up," the leading US black conservative intellectual says. He discusses the impact of Obama's presidency, self-censorship, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

This week, former Liberal leader Sussan Ley joined a cast of former politicians who have found a new voice in a life after politics. She's been in the media after spending 6 weeks on a solo trip catching Greyhound buses across the US. It got us thinking here at Saturday Extra, how do we reassess politicians after they say goodbye to politics? And in some cases, do we only find ourselves liking them once they've left the job?

Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation is the world's biggest green bank. After a decade in the role, CEO Ian Learmonth reflects on Australia's progress to decarbonise the economy and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.